Self-imposed rules of play

The most fascinating thing to me about MMOs is the long list of self-imposed perpetuated rules. The troubling part is how many of these rules are then imposed to others, often unbeknownst to them.

There are a number of common themes in these rules, spanning most games:

• Group or play a Single Player Game. Why should someone be excluded from a persistent massive environment just because they don't want to partake of some of the activities therein. Very few people do everything in a game, because they're too broad of option. Such is the case with grouping. Some people just don't want to. It's not a question of why. It's not up to other players to psychoanalysis those around them. It's a desire of one person against the desire of another within a system that has no set rules for the entire game. Soloers have their content, Groups have theirs, and the only time this is an issue is in those games that don't effectively reward both types of play. The better games do two things:
  1. Reward people who group without making grouping a requirement. This is about finding that comfortable balance between a rewarding Solo experience and a Group one. Yes, Groups can go places Solos can't, and most realistic solers are fine with that. The only ones not are those unwilling to accept whatever RL situation they have that prevents them from grouping. These people are basically playing the wrong games. Their money is worth the same as everyone else but they falsely believe they can get the proverbial blood from the stone. Some games just aren't for them just as some games aren't for others. The details of this are covered in terabytes of posts over the last three decades.
  2. Options. The best games give something for players to do at all times. In this regard, both EQ2 and WoW shine pretty well. Even those waiting for a group can be doing stuff unless they're waiting an instance entrance. For them I'd recommend making a time and sticking with it. It works very well. It's maximally efficient if everyone adheres to the time. Those that do will get benefits that those that don't do not, eventually teaching the latter to adhere to the time. This is for casual players too. Casual players are not just a bunch of free spirits all the time, hoping the game aligns to whatever whim they have that second. Some are casual in seeking a diversional form of entertainment for a finite period of time, and they'll go so far as to schedule that time.
• This game needs to be for me!. This I find most odd. Apparently, some players feel any game they play has to be the game for them. They ignore the concept genre. They ignore the concept of different rulesets. It's like they'd sit down at a Blackjack table and yell at the Dealer for not dealing them a Poker hand. These people need to recognize three things, truisms some seem to have never learned:
  1. Not every game was tailor made for them personally.
  2. Other people can like a game they don't.
  3. Development does not happen at the speed of play. Eventually a game may become something they like (as is the case with EQ2 for me). But waiting for this to happen while paying the subscription fee is the fast road to disillusionment.
• There's only one way to play. This is patently false, and proven as such even by the staunchest and most conservative holders of this view. These are fairly open experiences. Rare is it an encounter absolutely requires dozens of people doing one exact thing. There's margins for errors and new tactics. They have to be or the only way to play these games would be to read the eventual strategy guide. That people actually believe this to already be the case is telling of certain types of creativity, but it's almost never an actual fact (those occasions where it is involve scripted encounters already explained by the game itself, if the game was designed right). ]
• Everyone else is a lemming/ignorant/inexperienced. This I equate to drivers on the road, mostly guys, who think they are the best driver on that road. I've got news for them: they're not. They're just a cog in the fluid dynamics of large populations moving through environments at high rates. Such is the case with MMORPGs. Other people in these games are thinking breathing individuals at their computers thinking similarly deep thoughts about everyone. This does not come out in this anachronistic chat medium. But no matter how much someone wants to disbelieve, there's a better chance that the person they are mocking as a lemming, an ignorant or an inexperienced fool may be even more of a leader, or smarter, or experienced than they are. There's just no way of knowing without long arguments that generally result in erased forum posts are called GMs in a game.

For me, there's only one "rule" in an MMORPG: Keep an open mind.

An open mind is open to new ideas, new ways to play, ways to bring conversative strategy-guide followers together with folks who like to figure it out as they go, an acceptance of the more nefarious activities in the genre (illegal RMTing, duping), and a general acceptance of other people.

A closed mind results in self-imposed rules projected onto others. Nobody outside of those who run the game has any intrinsic right to tell anyone else how to play nor what to player. However, this is a two-way responsibility of open-mindedness. People need to be mature and open-minded about the games they want to play. If a game isn't for them, regardless of the reason, the best course of action is to move on. As mentioned above, a game may become something for them someday, but it's not worth their mental health to wait, unless they have a specific reason for staying (ie, they like some features but hope others improve, like how I loved the commerce and social aspects of SWG yet kept hoping combat would change).

Open minds. It is easier to recommend than to practice, but the rewards for doing so are far greater than any specific foozle in a game.